This past weekend the New England states were buried under close to three feet of snow. Our inept governor toured the state by helicopter to let us know all was well. If we were all as fortunate as he was and had our own helicopters, then yes all would have been well.

Unfortunately, most of us had no heat, no electricity, no mode of transportation and yes, no neighborly love. We have become a group of individuals who truly believe in the adage, “Eat or be eaten.” And sadly, I place myself in that group up to a point. I live in a complex that was not cleared of snow on Saturday morning. Some of the inhabitants decided to head out even though the governor said to stay home. Now, as they were digging out their vehicles, they threw the snow onto other parked vehicles, or behind other vehicles, burying and blocking the vehicles in. So if someone had an emergency, the feeling was too, that’s a shame but me first and the heck with you.

As I watched one individual burying my neighbor’s car, a car she had just dug out herself, I saw her ask him to please stop. His answer to her was to go and attempt something that was physically impossible. I interceded on her behalf and was provoked into a verbal confrontation with the young lad. The next day he proceeded to do the same, while digging out his other car, he began throwing snow on my friend’s car. Again, I interceded and was verbally assaulted and so I verbally assaulted back. In the course of our comments, he called me a racist, the last vestige of those who know they are wrong and are not intelligent enough to have a verbal confrontation, one-on-one, so to speak. For the record, I am a Brazilian-Italian, my mother is Brazilian and my wife is Brazilian, so if I had anything to say to him, it had nothing to do with race.

So this is where we are folks. As we slowly watch the last shreds of decency in our society go away, let’s all give a great big cheer to our fearless leaders, especially the one in Washington. The ones who tell us all is well and getting better. And to my peers, men like myself, in their 60s, I say this, stay strong; because today there is no respect for age, there is no respect for anything. We are living in a society whereby as soon as things begin to go wrong, the very fibers of humanity deteriorate and it truly becomes “Eat or be eaten.”